Written declaration No. 612 | Doc. 14108 | 21 June 2016
Lifting of the immunity of 138 members of the Turkish Parliament
In accordance with Rule 54 of the Rules of Procedure of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, we, members of national parliaments of Council of Europe member States, are seriously worried with the recent decision of the Parliament and the President of Turkey to lift the immunity of 138 (of 550) Members of Turkish Parliament, as this lifting of immunity unacceptably reduces the possibilities of these colleagues to do their parliamentary and political work and seriously threatens many of them on short notice with long lasting imprisonment.
Amongst the parliamentarians who have seen their immunity lifted are the leaders of CHP and HDP, whereas the latter party is confronted with the lifting of the immunity of almost all MPs, who just got their parliamentary mandate of the citizens of Turkey in November 2015.
We, too, see this massive lifting of immunity as “a blow to Turkish democracy” (EP President Schulz) and as “an attempt to silence the opposition” (EU Commissioner Hahn) and as a clear disrespect of the results of the recent parliamentary elections in June and November 2015 and call upon the Parliament and the President of Turkey to reconsider their decision to lift the immunity as soon as possible.